


The Malfunction

by Nixie_DeAngel



Series: Fluff Not Fear [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Barry Adopted By Joe, Body Issues Mention, CSI Barry, Fluff, Fluff not Fear, Flustered Barry, Insecure Barry, M/M, Matchmaking, Model Len, Modeling AU, Scheming Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 08:59:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8572279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nixie_DeAngel/pseuds/Nixie_DeAngel
Summary: Because of course Iris had mentioned at the last family dinner that she had been asked to cover one of the hottest stories in Central. Barry just wishes he’d bothered to actually ask her which one because standing not ten feet from him is Leonard Snart, Barry’s ultimate celebrity crush and a personal hero of his. *Au where Len is a model and he meets awkward Barry, a tech at a photo shoot.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: *Au where Len is a model and he meets the very awkward Barry, a tech at several photo shoots/videos. 
> 
> I may go back and do the other three, but I'm not sure yet. 
> 
> This was inspired by this post [here](http://melodiouse.tumblr.com/post/144706321178/coldflash-aus-modeling), by [Melodiouse](http://melodiouse.tumblr.com/).

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( _Earlier in the year:_

_"It was so amazing Iris," Barry murmured, almost dreamily as he stared out the window of the car, “He just, he trashed them without ever being rude about it.”_

_“I know, Bear, I know,” Iris muttered, rolling her eyes fondly at her brother. Barry hadn’t stopped talking about the model, who had shamed the people who'd done up a meme about him for his weight gain. She knew how much it meant to Barry, who suffered with body image issues. Knew it meant even more, since it’d been his celebrity crush, who’d spoken so openly about his body issues, how he'd suffered with them for years, how he'd suffered in other ways as well.  
_

_Turning as they pulled to a stop at a red light, Iris gave Barry an exasperated smile, but let him go on speaking about how much it meant to him, how much it meant to so many people that someone like Leonard Snart had done that._

_Because while she might be tired of hearing about it for the dozenth time, she would never tell Barry to stop, not when he was finally starting to learn to accept certain things about himself, because that article had helped him open up his eyes about his own issues, and Iris would never make him feel bad about that._ )

 

Barry isn’t sure what he’s doing here. This isn’t his kind of scene, heck this is nowhere near where he would usually be found, but Iris had called him, asking for last minute help to set up some of her equipment because her normal tech guy had called out sick.

So, being the dutiful brother he was, he’d come straight over after getting the address from her, and not much else, to help her set up for her photo shoot/interview. Barry’s thankful he got there before Iris’s interviewee had shown up, because otherwise he’d have been utterly useless to help his sister.

Because of course Iris had mentioned at the last family dinner that she had been asked to cover one of the hottest stories in Central. Barry just wishes he’d bothered to actually ask her which one because standing not ten feet from him is Leonard Snart, Barry’s ultimate celebrity crush and a personal hero of his.

 _Oh god_ , Barry felt his face flush when he’d locked eyes with the other man before ducking his head, bringing his hand up to rub at his neck. He should have said no, he should have left as soon as he’d finished. Now he was going to completely embarrass himself and Iris would never let him live it down.

Lifting his head slightly, he gave a little sigh of relief when he saw that Mr. Snart had moved to the other side of the room to speak with Iris. Seeing his chance, to escape without embarrassing himself too much, Barry started to turn around and grab his things, when he almost stumbled into a young woman he hadn’t noticed before.

 

( _He could feel his face on fire_.)

 

“Oh my, I’m sorry, I, I didn’t see you there,” Barry rambled out, as he tried to side step her at the last second, flailing around for a second, hand’s stretched out to try and steady himself but drew his hands back quickly when he noticed the almost there flinch she made at his sudden movements. “I’m so, so sorry. I, this was entirely my fault and I’m sorry,” he rambled on, only snapping his jaw shut when she gave a little chuckle.

“Oh sweetie, you’re so adorable,” as she reached out to pat his shoulder a few times as she continued to speak, “It’s okay, no harm no foul.”

“Are, are you sure?” he asked uncertainly, “I, I didn’t get you, did I? With my?” He used his hands to flap about in front of him a few times before twisting his hands together along with the hem of his cardigan. He felt his tension slowly dissipate at her small smile and firm nod.

“Are you Ms. West’s assistant?” The woman asked curiously, her voice pleasant but her eyes were sharp, taking in every detail, as she moved to coyly tuck a lock of hair behind her left ear, biting at her bottom lip.

 

( _Barry could see her sticking her chest out but he kept his eyes firmly on her face, he refused to be like all those guys that treated Iris like a piece of meat, like a prize to be won and coveted._ )

 

“No, no,” he shook his head before bringing his hand up to scratch at the back of his neck, while he edge around her to and snatched his bag up, holding it up to his chest like a shield. “Iris needed help setting up some of her equipment and since her usual guy is out sick, she asked me to help her out. I was just getting my things,” he shook his bag a little as he spoke, “And leave, so I don’t get in the way.”

“Now,” the woman spoke, straightening up, a far more genuine smile spreading across her face, “I don’t think you need to run off now.”

She held her hand out, which Barry tentatively shook it for a moment before dropping it and taking a half step back, all the while still feeling on uneven ground at the woman’s complete one eighty in mood flips.

“I’m Lisa Snart, Lenny’s manager and sister,” she turned to give her brother a thumbs up. Barry could hear a grunt in reply before Lisa was turning her attention back to Barry. “It’s part of my job to scare off the crazies.”

“Oh, I'm Barry Allen.” Barry blinked, licking at his bottom lip before glancing over to Iris and his walking wet dream, before quickly snapping his eyes back to look at Lisa, face once again flushing which earned a chuckle from the woman before him. “I, I should probably get going now.”

“Nonsense, you can keep me company, while Ms. West interviews Lenny, then does the photo shoot,” she grinned, eyes taking on a gleam as she spoke. She shot out her right arm, curling it carefully around Barry’s forearm to tug him over to the seats that’d been pushed off to the side, “Unless you actually do have a place to be?”

 

( _He’d never in his life wished for the ability to lie well, then he did right now._ )

 

“I, I,” closing his mouth, Barry shook his head, sinking down in the chair, as Lisa did the same to his left. He moved his arms, crossing them over his bag and tightening the death grip he had on it. “No, I’m free, it’s, it's my day off.”

“So how exactly do you know Ms. West?” Lisa asked, settling back in her seat, turning her head to both be able to look at Barry but also watch her brother and Iris speak on the other side of the room. She felt her lips curve up into a smirk, when she noted just how often Lenny kept sneaking glances at her companion.

“She’s my sister,” Barry answered, happy to have a safe topic to speak about. “Well, adopted sister, my parents passed away in a car crash when I was a kid, and her dad adopted me.” He could see Lisa’s eyes widen a bit at his confession, and he felt himself flush again, ducking his head down and bringing his left hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “Sorry, I, I tend to be pretty honest when asked questions.”

Lisa let out a soft laugh, shaking her head and reaching over to pat Barry on the arm, “No, you shouldn’t be sorry about that. That’s a great quality to have.” Pulling her hand back, she asked, “So what is it that you do then, Barry?”

“I work for CCPD,” he answered, swallowing back a squeak at the sudden sharpness to her features, “I’m a forensic scientist,” he added, falling into babbling mess as he felt himself shift at the way she was suddenly gauging him.

“I didn’t know you were sticking around, Bear.”

 

( _Barry wouldn’t be able to, for the live of him, tell you what exactly it was that he told Lisa in those two minutes. He could only imagine with a look of horror about what had come out of his mouth, but he’d never more glad for Iris’s presences in his life then in that exact moment._ )

 

“I did,” he shot up as he nearly yelled, clutching at his bag, face once more turning red with embarrassment at his absurdity, “I mean,” he paused to clear his throat, head ducking down once again, “Yes, I, um, Ms. Snart asked for company?” he looked uncertain, trying to keep his eyes firmly on his sister, rather than letting them wander to the man standing right next to her.

“I’m sorry if my sister was bothering you.”

Barry swallowed at the sound of that deep drawl, looking over at the man from underneath his lashes, flushing dark and snapping his eyes back down to the ground.

“No, I mean, um, she was, she was fine?” Barry cringed at his inability to speak properly. Barry sagged a little in relief, when Lisa stood up next to him and easily took over the conversation.

“I was being polite, Lenny, no need to give me the _cold_ shoulder,” Lisa cut in, shooting a look at her brother before turning warm eyes back to flick at Barry before moving her gaze to Iris and gave her a bright smile, “You’re brother was kind enough to keep me company, while you and Lenny were working.”

Iris shot a look between them, before smiling and nodding at Lisa.

“He was just explaining what kind of work he did as a forensic scientist for the CCPD,” Lisa went on, smoothly taking control of the conversation. “It was fascinating, Lenny, I think you’d enjoy listening to Barry here some time.”

“Lise-” Len tried to speak up, his face pinching but was cut off before he could speak.

“You know,” Iris cut in, eyes rapidly moving between Barry and Len before her lips curved up into a knowing smirk. “That’s a good idea, maybe you two should head on out now,” she nodded firmly, “Lisa and I, still need to finalized the approved questions for the interview and we won’t be doing the actually photo shoot until tomorrow.”

“Excellent,” Lisa grinned, cutting in when it looked like Len was about to protest once again, “Lenny and I haven’t been back home to Central in ages, maybe you could help him find some good places to eat, Barry. I mean, you said it was your day off, so today is perfect since your both free.”

Barry blinked rapidly, brain short circuiting at the rapidly change in events, swallowing he cut his eyes to see Iris giving him an encouraging nod, Lisa doing the same before he gave a cautious nod of his own, “I, I mean, if you want to, I could, I could show you a couple of places?”

 

( _Barry knew he sounded hopeful, probably needy_ _as well, oh god, Leonard Snart was going to turn him down and think he was a weirdo!_ )

 

Len turned slowly to look at the younger man, sweeping his gaze along Barry’s body for a moment, before giving a small nod of his head, “That’d be,” he paused for a second, “That would be nice.”

Barry felt himself let out a breath of relief before beaming, moving to slip the strap of his bag on to his shoulder, "Well, whenever you're, um, ready then," he felt his face grow hot again, but the other man simply gave him a small nod, teasing smile before turning and striding off to go and get his coat from where he'd placed it, Barry quickly moving to stand over by the door, where he was quickly joined by Leonard, then with half-hearted waves, they were gone.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

They waited a few moments after the doors closed before they gave in to celebrate their success, by Lisa pulling Iris into a quick hug.

“Thank god that worked, I don’t think I could have taken Lenny waxing poetry about _your_ brother any longer,” Lisa spoke up, as they pulled away and moved to walk over to where Iris’s stuff was spread out on a table.

“I completely understand,” Iris agreed, sinking down into her chair, “I thought Barry was going to spend the rest of our lives crushing on _your_ brother.”

“Idiots,” they muttered fondly together, before getting to work on setting up the questions. Because while they’d set this entire thing up to finally get Barry and Len to meet in person, they still actually had to do their jobs.

“Drinks to celebrate out matchmaking success?” Lisa asked after a moment, to which Iris immediately nodded her agreement.

 

( _Three months earlier:_

_“God he’s beautiful, Lise,” Len pouted, staying hidden in the back as he watched the young man stand up, speaking passionately, trying to encourage the high school students to consider a career in criminal justice._

_“Then maybe you should go say something,” Lisa elbowed him harshly in his side, earning a glare and grunt from her big brother. Rolling her eyes, Lisa shot him a disappointed look before moving her gaze back to see her boyfriend standing off to the side, preparing to give his own speech to the auditorium filled with students. “You’re an idiot, you’ve been fan girling over this guy for nearly six months now, Lenny. This is the first time you've actually crossed paths with him and you aren't going to take it? Coward," she scoffed, shaking her head at him. "I'll be back in a moment, try not to drool to much over the twink."  
_

_Without waiting on a reply from her brother, Lisa spun on her heel and strode away. Bringing her phone up, she didn't see the young woman coming towards her, until they collided._

_"I'm so sorry," both woman spoke at once, beinding down to pick up the things they'd knocked out of each others hands._

_"My fault," Lisa spoke, grabbing a lanyard and reading the name. Blinking slowly, Lisa snapped her head up to look at the woman, "You're Iris West, reporter for Picture News, here in Central right?" She held out the lanyard to the other woman as she spoke.  
_

_Lisa watched as the young woman nodded slowly, taking back her lanyard as she did, "Do I know you?"_

_"No," Lisa shook her head, lips curving up into a mischievous smile, "But I believe you know my brother, Leonard Snart." She watched as the reporter's eyes widened at the name. "I was wondering if you could help me with a problem."_

_"I believe you can help me out as well," Iris finally spoke up, lips curling up into a smirk._ )

 

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**Author's Note:**

> I'm [Nixie](http://nixie-deangel.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Please don't be afraid to tell me what you think of this! Or any of my works! I adore comments!


End file.
